The Death and Life of the Great American School System
by Diane Ravitch
Chapter 10- The Billionaire Boys' Club
Chapter Summary
Chapter 10 is titled "The Billionaire Boys' Club" because Ravitch talks about billionaires in the education system. Because of the failed attempts of the Ford Foundation, other foundations began to step up to help the education system in America. However, most the foundations were philanthropic and backed by families with billion dollar fortunes. The top three foundations were the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (founder of Microsoft), the Walton Family Foundation (founder of Walmart) and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation (founder and seller of a retirement business called SunAmerica). Because many of the less fortunate districts needed the funding and support of the big philanthropic foundations, they turned to the large corporations for help and couldn't turn down the generous offers being given to them. Although the money was good, the outcome wasn't what they expected. Many of the districts were scared to say anything when they realized their district was not improving with the input of these businesses. Many of the leaders of the schools avoided making their opinions and ideas aware to the foundations, in fear that they could jeopardize future contributions from the foundations.
Each of these foundations were major philanthropic foundations trying to fix the education systems in America. Although each foundation made large efforts to change the structure and methods surrounding the failing schools, not all of them were successful. Even though many of the effected districts were seeing improvements in attendance and student/teacher relationships, the academics in the school remained the same or decreased. For example: The Gates Foundation tried making big schools smaller in order to improve rigor, relevance and relationships however making the schools smaller only led to less resources for other programs such as AP classes and sports. This caused many of the advanced kids to leave the small schools and go to different districts, in turn causing the academic standing of the school to decrease or remain the same. Another example was the Broad foundation thinking that schools could be run like a business and the Walton foundation believing that there should be market competition among schools. Despite the efforts and funding that the big foundations provided, the Billionaires didn't end up really improving the academics of the schools. So although each foundation did wonders with the amount of money they donated, Ravitch still believes that unless they recognize the importance of "teacher effectiveness," or the negative effects of running education systems like a business, public education will be destroyed.
Robin Keller pgs. 195-208
Controversy of education in 1960's Ford Foundation
1967 project: Community Control- Schools in an impoverished urban neighborhood improve by being governed by parents and members of the local community.
Power eventually given back to the Mayor
Getting rid of white teachers/supervisors without due process
Demonstrations, protests and problems started in Ocean Hill Brownsville
Union went on strike three times and closed schools down for 2 months
1969 state decentralized schools and created elected school boards lasted until 2002
Ford foundation learned not to engineer social change- and set an example for others as to why it's bad
1993 Walter Annenberg commitment to school reform- 5 year plan to give 500 million dollars to improve education
local plans for improvement - arts, teacher development, parent engagement, social services, leadership, learning communities, etc
No real result, not related to the funding but no conflict either
need a specific plan to be effective
Philanthropists and billionaires began making efforts to education reform. Gates, Broad, Walton they wanted measurable results
set specific goals and achieved them
have power because they aren't accountable for changes, but the schools and teachers who receive the money are accountable for performance
Schools don't want to get rid of them because they are a large money source, cannot alienate
Long term goals of foundations must be scrutinized because of their great power and no one's ability to speak against them
People pour money into foundations so that they can make the changes that a more unorganized community cannot- many of these changes are focused on the way education systems are run
Walton- try to promote alternatives to public education favor market competition among schools promote charter schools and competition with government schools
Gates- wants to solve boosting high grad rates and college entry rates, especially in urban places- small schools were solution not true
small schools don't have the same options as large schools, decline in performance competition, cliques, divisive
changed thought from structure to teaching and learning
Rachel Jones
pgs 208 - 222
Studies have shown that the ideal size for a high school is 600 - 900 students, because small schools are not often able to offer a full curriculum and large schools have weak social relations. This is in line with the poor performance of Gates' schools
The Gates Foundation pointed to work where they claimed that small schools had helped in NYC. However, what they failed to consider is that the demographics were not the same (more females, fewer ESL students, & students with disabilities). Students who attended these schools already had higher attendance rates & test scores. In the future, these schools actually had higher teacher/prinicpal turnover and graduates received different diplomas.
Gates admitted that many of the small schools that his foundation invested in did not improve student achievement. He decided to refocus his work to the proliferation of charter schools, and to the issue of teacher effectiveness (how to improve & how to terminate teachers in ineffective schools).
Gates also decided to discontinue evaluations of small school grants and increased funding for advocacy work. The biggest grantees were charter schools, and the developers of new and redesigned high schools. No one criticized his donations because there had never been a foundation before that gave grants to every major organization for changing education and advocacy group.
Another philanthropist that has had a major impact on education is Eli Broad, who made his living as an accountant and entrepreneur. His foundation is called the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and invests in the arts, medical research, and education.
Broad sees education as an investment and should yield results. He believes in competition, choice, deregulation, accountability, merit pay, testing, and right management. Many people who made decisions with him were non-educators and held degrees in law, business, and management.
Broad invested in Oakland, CA. The state put a Ward-trained superintendent in charge of schools there. His vision was to create small schools, turn the school into a marketplace of school choice while overhauling the bureaucracy, closing low-performing districts, and opening charter schools. Charter schools seemed to be producing better results because they had higher test scores.
Problems in Oakland: Test scores rose, but they were still far below the state average. 54% of people in Oakland surveyed said that the school system had gotten worse or stayed the same. Also, charter schools had half as many special education students and they could make students leave. These students wound up at public schools.
What did the Broad Foundation learn after a decade? They were happy with charter schools "improving" student achievement, but disappointed that some of their investments didn't pay off. They said that they would continue to support efforts to extend the school day, merit pay, national standards and tests, and charter schools.
The Broad Foundation supports the arts and medical research without trying to redefined how art should be created/ how medical re search should take place. Why can't it do this with education?
Race to the Top: $4.3 billion to promote educational reform. Excluded any states that limited the number of charter schools or prohibited a link between teacher/principal evaluations and student test scores. Told states to adopt as many as possible Obama-administered ideas to support reform if they wanted to receive the money.
Broad & Gates foundations support a concentration on charter schools and teacher effectiveness. However, when there is such an emphasis on charter schools, public schools will become the "dumping ground" for students who were rejected or did not apply. It should be expected that public schools will include well-educated teachers/administrators and a great educational program.
by Diane Ravitch
Chapter 10- The Billionaire Boys' Club
Chapter Summary
Chapter 10 is titled "The Billionaire Boys' Club" because Ravitch talks about billionaires in the education system. Because of the failed attempts of the Ford Foundation, other foundations began to step up to help the education system in America. However, most the foundations were philanthropic and backed by families with billion dollar fortunes. The top three foundations were the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (founder of Microsoft), the Walton Family Foundation (founder of Walmart) and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation (founder and seller of a retirement business called SunAmerica). Because many of the less fortunate districts needed the funding and support of the big philanthropic foundations, they turned to the large corporations for help and couldn't turn down the generous offers being given to them. Although the money was good, the outcome wasn't what they expected. Many of the districts were scared to say anything when they realized their district was not improving with the input of these businesses. Many of the leaders of the schools avoided making their opinions and ideas aware to the foundations, in fear that they could jeopardize future contributions from the foundations.
Each of these foundations were major philanthropic foundations trying to fix the education systems in America. Although each foundation made large efforts to change the structure and methods surrounding the failing schools, not all of them were successful. Even though many of the effected districts were seeing improvements in attendance and student/teacher relationships, the academics in the school remained the same or decreased. For example: The Gates Foundation tried making big schools smaller in order to improve rigor, relevance and relationships however making the schools smaller only led to less resources for other programs such as AP classes and sports. This caused many of the advanced kids to leave the small schools and go to different districts, in turn causing the academic standing of the school to decrease or remain the same. Another example was the Broad foundation thinking that schools could be run like a business and the Walton foundation believing that there should be market competition among schools. Despite the efforts and funding that the big foundations provided, the Billionaires didn't end up really improving the academics of the schools. So although each foundation did wonders with the amount of money they donated, Ravitch still believes that unless they recognize the importance of "teacher effectiveness," or the negative effects of running education systems like a business, public education will be destroyed.
Robin Keller pgs. 195-208
- Controversy of education in 1960's Ford Foundation
- 1967 project: Community Control- Schools in an impoverished urban neighborhood improve by being governed by parents and members of the local community.
- Power eventually given back to the Mayor
- Getting rid of white teachers/supervisors without due process
- Demonstrations, protests and problems started in Ocean Hill Brownsville
- Union went on strike three times and closed schools down for 2 months
- 1969 state decentralized schools and created elected school boards lasted until 2002
Ford foundation learned not to engineer social change- and set an example for others as to why it's badRachel Jones
pgs 208 - 222